This Politician Is Quite Upset That Her Seat Has Been Given A Slightly Rude New Name

“Would the member for Cox please withdraw?”

Sentences like that have got Liberal politician Sarah Henderson worried about the proposed new name for her federal seat.

For now, Henderson’s seat is harmlessly named Corangamite. But due to a redistribution of the electorate boundaries, it will soon no longer include Lake Corangamite, for which it is named.

The Australian Electoral Commission is the group in charge of naming seats, and due to a shift in the electorate’s boundaries, it has decided to rename Corangamite after Aussie hero May Cox.

Yes, the seat will be named Cox.

May Cox was, to be a fair, a bit of a legend. Born in 1883, she taught kids in rural schools before focussing on coaching the state girls’ swim team. She was the first woman to become the Victorian Education Department’s supervisor of swimming and lifesaving, at a time when female teachers were rarely appointed to top roles.

She taught tens of thousands of kids how to swim, and during World War I raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for the war effort.

Sarah Henderson tells @ljayes there are things that happen in Parliament… such as having to withdraw… that might leave the "Member for Cox" open to ridicule.

— Alice Workman (@workmanalice) April 12, 2018

Unfortunately, she has a very funny name.

Henderson told the Herald Sun that she would challenge the decision.

“I am pleased to confirm that the Liberal party will be objecting to the draft boundaries and renaming of the Corangamite electorate,” she said.

Speaking to Sky News today, Henderson again expressed her concern.

“I’ve already been subjected to quite a bit of ridicule,” she said, alluding to the fact that the word Cox kinda sounds like a colloquialism for, well, cocks.

“I want to be known as someone who is a very strong, passionate committed member for the people I represent,” she continued, “Not any of these inappropriate suggestions in relation to a proposed name change.”

Henderson pointed that if she said something rude in Parliament, the speaker may have to ask “the member for Cox to withdraw”, which is, y’know, quite funny.

Henderson is also challenging the redistributed boundaries of her electorate because they will put her in a weaker position at the next election — and if she does lose at the next election, that means that there would have to be a swing against the Member for Cox.

Or… a dick swing.

More to ‘come’.